High School Art Curriculum When Your School Gives You None
Art Complete – High School is built for the grades 9–12 art teacher who was given studio space and sections to teach but no curriculum to teach from. Its 100+ resources cover analysis and interpretation of art, design and media art alongside studio practice in traditional and digital media, moving students from concept to final artwork with growing independence.
See the HS art curriculum →Art Complete – High School is a no-prep curriculum for grades 9–12 with 100+ resources, priced from $149.90. For a teacher whose school provides no art curriculum, it supplies analysis and interpretation of art across cultures, periods and contemporary contexts, covering style, symbolism, composition and intention, plus studio practice in drawing, painting, mixed media, design and conceptual work, using traditional and digital media from concept to final artwork.
The curriculum
Art Complete – High School, Grades 9–12
Start with the full curriculum. The other resources below are optional add-ons. Open any cover for the full contents and price.
The real problem
The real gap in an unwritten high school art program
High school art without a curriculum usually splits into two bad options. One is the open studio, where students pick what they want and you circulate, which works for the three strongest artists and leaves everyone else making the same anime sketch all semester. The other is a project list copied from wherever you could find it, which keeps students busy but does not build toward independent work. Neither prepares a junior or senior to explain their own choices. That is the skill high school art should build: a student who can look at a contemporary piece, a historical painting or a piece of design and talk about style, symbolism and intention, then make work of their own and defend it. Getting there needs a sequence. Students need to practice interpretation on other people's work before they apply it to their own. They need structured projects before conceptual ones. And they need to try traditional and digital media so they can choose between them. On top of that you have mixed sections, where a ninth grader in Art 1 and a senior building a portfolio may share a period.
Why it fits
Where the curriculum fills the gap
Its two strands, analysis and practice, run together, so students learn to explain art as they learn to make it.
- Interpretation of style, symbolism, composition and intention trains students to talk about art with precision.
- Fine art, design, media art and visual culture widen what students consider art worth studying.
- Drawing, painting, mixed media and design projects provide structured studio work before open-ended assignments.
- Experimental and conceptual approaches give older students room for independent ideas.
- Traditional and digital media both appear, so students can compare tools before choosing their own.
- The concept-to-final-artwork process builds the planning habits that portfolio work depends on.
Getting started
Getting the first quarter in order
A suggested sequence for the start of the year. It is a plan you build from the units; the product itself has no fixed schedule.
- Split by experience, not just gradeDecide which units suit beginners and which suit students with more studio background. In mixed sections, the same analysis lesson can lead to a structured project for some and a conceptual one for others.
- Start with interpretationUse an early analysis lesson on intention and symbolism in a contemporary piece. Students learn that art class involves thinking and writing as well as making, and you see who can already explain an image.
- Run one structured studio unitPick a drawing or painting unit that matches your supplies and teach the full concept-to-final process. It sets the expectation that work gets planned, revised and finished.
- Add a digital or design optionIf your school has devices, introduce a design or digital media task next. If not, use mixed media. Either way, students see that medium is a choice with consequences.
- Hold a short critiqueEnd the quarter with a class critique using the analysis vocabulary from the curriculum. Students describe composition and intention in each other's work, and you get material for grading.
Which version
Choosing between the two versions
The base version at $149.90 includes all 100+ curriculum resources and covers what is missing when no curriculum exists. The $189.90 version adds Teach-Life-Balance, a digital course with a planner, guides and templates for managing teaching workload. It adds no art units, so choose it only if planning and time are your main pressure. The Complete Art Education Bundle for High School is a separate, smaller product shown on this page if you want extra material.
Honest limits
Honest limits
No art supplies, software or devices are included. Digital media tasks assume you have access to the tools; if you do not, use the traditional media units instead. The curriculum does not replace your judgment about portfolio requirements or AP expectations, and it should be checked against your state or district visual arts requirements. If colleagues in the art department want to use it too, message Teach Lessons first. If it is not right for your program, you can exchange it within 7 days for store credit of equal value, not cash.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Can I say it meets state visual arts standards?
Not as a claim from the product. It is written for U.S. high school classrooms, yet no state, district or the National Core Arts Standards body has endorsed or adopted it. If your school wants documentation, compare the analysis and practice units against your state's high school visual arts standards and write down the links you confirm.
Will it work for Art 1 and advanced students in the same room?
That is one of the more practical uses. Analysis lessons work for the whole group, and studio projects can be set at different levels: structured drawing or painting for beginners, experimental or conceptual approaches for advanced students. Differentiated worksheets support the same split, so you can keep one topic for the period while expectations differ.
We have no computers in the art room. Is it still usable?
Yes. Digital media is one part of the studio strand, not the whole of it. Drawing, painting, mixed media and design projects can all be done with traditional materials, and the analysis units only need images to look at. Skip or adapt the digital tasks until you have access to devices.
Does it help with portfolio preparation?
It builds the skills a portfolio depends on: moving from concept to final artwork, increasing independence, and explaining intention and composition. It is not a portfolio program and does not include requirements for any specific exam or college application, so check those separately with the program or school involved.
Is there contemporary art, or only historical work?
Both. The analysis strand covers art from diverse cultures and periods as well as contemporary contexts, including design, media art and visual culture. That range helps students who connect more with graphic design or digital images than with older painting, and it lets you compare a historical and a contemporary work on the same idea, such as symbolism or composition.
How soon can I use it?
Right after purchase. You get a download link by email, and the files also stay in your customer account under Orders. Materials work for print and digital classrooms, so you can print worksheets or share them digitally from the first lesson. Slides can go up on a projector if your room has one.
Replace the open studio with a real course
Look at the product page for the full contents and decide whether it matches your sections and your studio.
See the HS art curriculum →